Comment: There is a drastic need for more LGBT candidates to stand for election

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Yes ! LGBT people in politics is important, not necessarily to act as a barrier against deliberate discrimination, but to offer their view point in general.

I believe LGBT people, like women, and people of colour, offer a perspective that is often insightful and offer view points that “the majority” often overlook completley; not because they don’t care, but because they simply don’t know !

We need people of every walk of life to be there when the decisions are being made about how our society is run and managed; to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.

LGBT politicians shouldn’t act as a voice for LGBT people in the absolute sense, but I believe LGBT people often see the world in a way straight people cannot.

I believe our voices can be invaluable; despite what we’ve been told, we are born leaders and problem solvers !

This is an interesting essay that I found very empowering and explains where I’m coming from…

As project co-ordinator for Proud Generation I very much welcome Mathew’s support for LGBT people living in Hinckley & Bosworth, many of whom are still afraid of the consequences of disclosing their sexual orientation. Having moved to Hinckley & Bosworth from East London, I experienced something of a culture shock! Much needs to be done here to ensure that it is a community in which LGBT people can feel safe. In the last 5 years, no school in the area has disclosed a homophobic hate incident, yet when one school was put into special measures, homophobic bullying was cited as an issue in the Ofsted report.

Mathew is right; there is much to be done here, but we are now seeing progress, and I’m quite sure that Mathew’s influence has been a significant factor.

Sorry, but that’s utter bollocks.
Why is it that politics has to have representative demographics?

A single parent one-legged heterosexual Asian with hearing difficulties should be just as capable of representing LGBT people as anybody else if they have the right education and attitude.

Equally, I and many others would not relish the idea of climbing the greasy pole that is politics. These days people do it for money and power, instead of a sense of public duty like it was years ago. As Billy Connolly once said, “The desire to be a politician should be enough to ban you from ever becoming one.”

The snag is that if we’re talking about people in a political party, as opposed to standing as an independent, you need to successfully get preselected. I tried once in 2006 in Labour for the Scottish Parliament and failed, for whatever reason.

And candidacy is different from election, as in succeeding to elected office to be able to initiate proposals.